IOC pressured to speak out on global gay rights

FILE - In this Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2010 file photo, Australia's Matthew Mitcham celebrates with his silver medal in the men's 10m platform diving event during the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, India. Mitcham, a 2008 gold medalist in Beijing, is one of a tiny group of openly gay athletes expected to compete in London 2012. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)
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FILE - In this Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2010 file photo, Australia's Matthew Mitcham celebrates with his silver medal in the men's 10m platform diving event during the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, India. Mitcham, a 2008 gold medalist in Beijing, is one of a tiny group of openly gay athletes expected to compete in London 2012. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)
/ AP

"Where is that bold, progressive Olympic movement that sees great injustice in the world and says, `Whatever the risk, we won't let people who violate our tenets join us,'" Amaechi said.

He depicted the IOC executive committee as "a bunch of older, straight men who still giggle when there's mention of sexual orientation."

The gay-rights issue is likely to entangle the IOC long past London.

Russia, host of the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, has a checkered record on gay rights, and a regional court - citing a potential threat to Russian society - has upheld Sochi officials' rejection of a proposed "Pride House" to welcome gays and lesbians at the games.

Advocates, meanwhile, are coalescing around the Olympics in their push for gay rights.

Boris Dittrich, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch, said the IOC should be trying to convince individual countries with anti-gay laws that they need to be more tolerant.

"The IOC has been willing to condemn states for their racism, for the exclusion of women athletes," said Jessica Stern of the New York-based International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission. "We have to call on them to take into account the safety and inclusion of LGBT athletes."

Olympics aside, it's an exciting time for gay-rights activists in both Britain and the United States as Prime Minister David Cameron and President Barack Obama each have thrown their support behind efforts to legalize same-sex marriage.

Yet even in those countries, and their Western partners, sports-related prejudice against gays persists. Australian diver Matthew Mitcham, a 2008 gold medalist in Beijing, is one of a tiny group of openly gay athletes expected to compete in London.

Sports leagues in Britain and elsewhere in Europe have been trying to combat anti-gay bias. In North America, there has never been an active player in the top four major league sports - baseball, football, basketball and hockey - who's come out as gay.

Jim Buzinski of OutSports.com, which tracks the role of gays in sports, believes progress is being made as more straight athletes support the idea of gays competing openly and as anti-gay slurs become increasingly taboo.

As for the IOC, Buzinski described its current leadership as "a lost cause."

"It's an issue I don't think these people feel comfortable talking about," he said. "It's a group that's going to be one of the last to change."

In London, spectators and athletes likely will glimpse some of the many rainbow-flag gay-pride pins that LOCOG has issued as part of its efforts to show solidarity with the gay community. LOCOG also has touted its efforts to recruit gay and transgender staff and volunteers, and include gay-run businesses among its contractors.

Nonetheless, some British activists are displeased.

Andy Wasley, media manager of the London-based gay rights group Stonewall, said there had been inadequate efforts to launch long-term initiatives aimed at increasing gay and transgender participation in amateur and pro sports.

"Given that the Olympics were won on a legacy of diversity and inclusion, it's striking how little they have done," he said.